Cleve, our 10 year-old German Shephard/Husky mix, is starting to show agressive behavior towards our other three dogs (especially towards Roy, a two year-old Chocolate Lab). Cleve has been a bit grumpy at times for the past six months, but this week has been going after Roy and the others. This is not aggressive play, but trying to grab Roy by the neck. This started happening last week when I laft on my current trip.

My wife has been keeping Cleve separate from the others, and he's been fine alone. If he sees Roy, Cleve starts to growl. Cleve just may be getting old (he was diagnosed with cancer a year ago) and tired. Cleve shows interest in a toy I recently bought (he can't be separated from it), and still loves to eat.

Any suggestions/ideas from anybody?

Start out with your vet, there could be some medical changes, loss of eyesight, things like that. They would probably have some ideas for the behavior side of things too, but I would start with a full exam to rule out anything medical.

I just realized that I posted this to TravelBuzz. Moderator, please move this post to Omni.

This has everything to do with travel! Your dog misses it's homeland, it's time for you and your dog to make a trip to Germany

It's a sign of pain. What kind of cancer was diagnosed? It's quite possible the cancer has spread. Go to a vet immediately!

He was diagnosed with hermangiosarcoma and had his spleen removed 13 months ago. Other than acting out towards Roy, he is the same dog. Cleve is now separated from Roy, and is his old self. He doesn't mind being around Nadia, our other shephard mix (5 years old), and will play with her in the back yard. It's just Roy, and a lesser extent, Lucky the puppy, that Cleve wants to kill.

Since the Cleve is separated from Roy now, Roy has been attempting to mark the kitchen , so it may just be a dominance thing. We have an appointment with the vet Friday to pick up some more meds, so I'll bring up the situation.

I had a girlfriend in college who did that when I broke up with her.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I hope things turn out well with your dog.

Definitely would agree with this as it's helped a couple of times with my dog -- a simple and relatively inexpensive blood test (as I'm sure you know) can reveal a lot, even if it's nothing. My lab just had a splenectomy last week, thankfully the mass was benign and we got it before it ruptured. Hope he's feeling better soon!


[This message has been edited by cawhite60156 (edited Jan 15, 2004).]

moving to OMNI...

--richard, moderator